Vätternrundan is a 315km cycle around Lake Vättern starting and finishing in Motala, Sweden.
There are around 23,000 cyclists who take part making it the world’s largest bike ride!
In mid June 2022, 15 of those 23k were hardy Dirty Wknders, who had flown out to Sweden to take on this epic challenge.
Below you can read their thoughts and feelings after riding 315km in a day.
So you've decided to attempt the Rapha Festive 500? Good on you. It's a tough challenge and a fun thing to do over the Christmas period. However, due to many circumstances that can pop up over the 8 days, it can be very hard to complete the Festive 500. As someone who has attempted the challenge about five times, and completed it a grand total of zero times, I can attest that it is pretty tricky.
If you're still unsure as to what exactly the Festive 500 is you can read our handy guide here. If you haven't yet signed up for the challenge I can highly recommend it. At the very least it might get you out of the house on Boxing Day when Uncle Gerald starts arguing with Aunty Maude and Mum is suggesting another round of 'Eye Spy'.
Whatever your opinion of Rapha (and nearly everyone has one), it's hard to argue that the Festive 500 is not a good thing. Riding your bike more is generally considered to be a good thing, so joining a world wide challenge to help you ride your bike more can only add to that good thing.
But what is the Rapha Festive 500? This being it's 10th year, the #festive500 (you have to use a hashtag every time you type it, it's the law) is a self set challenge to ride 500km in 8 days. Sounds pretty ok, right? 62.5km per day doesn't sound bad, what's the big deal? Well, those 8 days happen to fall in between Christmas Eve and New Years Eve!
The Festive 500 is a great challenge to take on during the Christmas period, but it is bloomin' hard work.
Riding 500km in 8 days, including Christmas Eve, Day and NYE, is a serious commitment. Especially when the in-laws are likely to pop over unannounced on a random day too, probably just after you've put all your winter kit on.
There are also lots of alternative options to the Festive 500 - like Cold Dark North's Festive 50 (ride 50km over the period, if you feel like it). We wholeheartedly support these initiatives too.
The time of year where we have to impress our loved ones with Christmas gifts is upon us. And few people are as hard to impress as cyclists!
Every year, poor unsuspecting non-cyclists have to rack their brains to buy their loved ones something that they a). really want and b). don't already have.
It's the second part that's so hard - they already have so many subscriptions, gadgets and funny bits of kit! How are you supposed to know what the cyclist in your life actually needs?
If you're looking for the perfect cycling Christmas gift for 2022 then read on. If you have questions then get in touch, we're here to help.
You will notice that our list does not contain generic bits of cycling kit, gadgets or things like 'new wheels'. This is very much on purpose - we believe in the experiences not things mantra.
Love it or hate it, Black Friday is a thing. We ummed and ahhed about doing a Black Friday deal this year, but decided to go ahead on the premise that it will help people get into group cycling, or save some money in a time when things are a bit shit.
So there you have it, our reason for joining the Black Friday circus. Read on for details of our 50% off BFCM deal.
Yeah it's 50% off. That's about the long and short of it. So that's full access to the club membership for just £19.50. That's £1.60 per month.